LAND SALES ACT

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 306, 21 September 1943, Page 4

LAND SALES ACT

Comments By A Farmer

NEW VALUATION EXAMINED

The following commentary on the provisions of (he Servicemen's Settlement t.inl Land Sales Act Ims been conti-iliiHed by a farmer who has examined (lie effect upon his own farm of the provisions for lixing the price of farm land if it is offered for sale. The Act, is characteristic of the Labour Party's traditional •'bias'’ against the primary producer. 11. intensities the division of our people into two classes, the town dweller, who is always assiduously courted by the party because of his voting power, ami the rural worker who, because of his individualism and independence, cannot give allegiance to the party’s specious electioncering promises. Invidious Discrimination.

Tile town dweller lias his properly valued al the December, 1642, market valuation. That is the basic value I'or all town properties. The rural landowner has his properly valued at the

"productive value” as delined by the Act, irrespective of what the actual market value might: have been in December, 11142. The land of the town dweller cannot, be taken under the Act. The rural dweller may have his land taken ami be obliged to vacate it on 30 days' notice.

It is difficult to understand why there should be this discrimination. It' the Act is a bona tide Servicemen's Settlement Act, .surely for every serviceman who requires a farm there will be 20 who require a town.dwelling. Yet the townsman may retain his home while the farmer may, under certain circumstances, lose his farm to seek both a home and a job. Small Farmers’ Wages.

Little thought appears to have been given to the application of the "basic value” to the great majority of farms in the Dominion. Ninety-live per cent, of farmers are small men operating farms of 160 acres and less and milking sufficient cows only to provide them with a wage that would be a humiliation to a tradesman and a deep insult to a member of one of the master unions.

1 have a farm of 100 acres on which I milk 50 cows, employing my son, a youth aged 19 years. The present market value of the ; land is £4500 (the Government valuation being £-1000). This value has been stable during the past six years, for although prices for butterfat have increased a little during (hat period they have not kept pace with rising costs. The following i.s a normal season's statement of income and expenditure in round figures : —

In terms of the Act, to determine the basic value of this laud, any remuneration for my work performed in the production of the above income must be deducted from the above sum of £354. If this is assessed at the ridiculously low figure of £6 a week (£312 a year), the net income from my property for the purposes of the Act is £42.

' Farm of 100 Acres for £933. Now tlio Act states I hat the productive value of ftit’iu property is the net income capitalized at -Lt per cent. My farm on this basis is worth the uiugiiilicetit sum of £933, a sum Hutt would not nearly cover the value of Ute dwelling thereon or buy a waterfront section in the city. Yet under the Act this is the price that 1 may be required to accept i£ 1 offer the property for sale.

This is the valuation according to the Act for a typical -average wellmanaged farm, properly manured, in pasture and first-class land. If the figures of a farmer producing 2001 b. of fat and less per cow are taken be would be driven off his land practically penniless and indeed penniless if, as is the case of the majority of farmers, he has a mortgage liability. The Pride of Ownership.

It might be wise Io mention another class of farmer —the man who from love of the soil has made his farm his bank and Lias improved it quite out of proportion to the income derived from it. Over a period of years he has managed to build a modern home costing, say, £l5O9 —the price of a State house for other classes of workers. He has built a modern shed with all conveniences to the value of £350, he has abundant concrete yards, concrete raceways through his farm, standardized and well-painted gates, concrete troughs in all paddocks and excellent shelter belts. These improvements wilt not. except perhaps in a very slight measure, increase the production from the property, but to him they typify pride of ownership and contentment, with a modest income from his own soil. On the basis of compensation provided for under the Act, the value of these improvements could' be lost to the farmer owning such property if for any reason lie should decide to sell it. The whole policy of the Act is unquestionably State land eonli,scation. and its ultimate effect will be to drive hundreds of liberty-loving subjects off the land and to reduce the remaining farmers to a state of Contenental peasantry or worse. Primary production is already declining through the action and inaction of the present Government and the return of that Government to power would greatly accelerate that decline. The Act, in my opinion, has been hastily conceived and prematurely born, and is going to relegate its sponsors to the political dustheap, and no liberty-loving subject will mourn their fate.

Butter-fat (50 cows at 2501b). 12.5001b. at 1/3', £807 Bobby calves, 40 at 3/6 125 Total receipts .. Hull Wages of youth with £ ISO 0 0 Manures ami lime (normal allocations 100 0 0 Rates, insurances and land tax 37 10 0 Bull replacements , (aver.) 10 0 0 Repairs, maintenance & depreciation 100 0 0 Freight and cartage .. 25 0 0 Power and lighting .. 30 0 0 Benzine and oils .... 23 0 0 Veterinary expenses .. 10 0 0 5 p.e. Interest in stock and plant (£750) . 37 10 0 Shed replacements and miscellaneous .... 30 0 0 585 — Taxable income . . Aw 331